The City of Beverly Hills is planning to reconstruct North Santa Monica Boulevard to rebuild the deteriorating roadway, upgrade the century-old drainage system and include other much-needed street repairs. This reconstruction project includes only North Santa Monica Boulevard along the entire stretch within Beverly Hills.

The Beverly Hills City Council has appointed 15 residents to the Santa Monica Boulevard Blue Ribbon Committee to develop recommendations for enhancements that could be included along with the core reconstruction project. The committee's assignment includes evaluating bicycle lanes and landscaped medians.

The committee held four community meetings with project consultants PSOMAS to develop possible enhancement elements for this once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Additionally, committee members and the general public participated in two mobile tours that highlighted the existing road conditions. Public input was essential to help the committee members develop their recommendations. There will be additional opportunities for public input.

At the January 22, 2014 meeting the committee voted on a number of possible enhancements and were presented to the full Council on March 4, 2014. The City Council is scheduled to discuss funding options and other aspects of the project at the April 1, 2014 study session.

Representative areas of the street have been marked to show the 3’ and 6’ markings painted on the north side of Santa Monica Blvd. Please see the attached document (Markings on Santa Monica Blvd) for the exact locations of the markings.

Here is a preview of the results:

Do you support widening the existing curb-to-curb width?[Note: the existing roadway is 60’ wide in some places and 63’ wide in other places. Proposed is roadway of 66’ wide which would require widening by 3’ or 6’ depending on location]

YES - 7

NO – 4

If widened, do you support striping the pavement for Bicycle Lanes?

YES – 9

NO – 1

Abstain – 1

Do you support the addition of Vegetated Medians?[Committee noted that median plan would need to be reviewed by Fire and Police to ensure acceptable areas and planting.]

YES – 11

NO – 0

Do you support the addition of Parkway – Street Trees on the north side along park?

NO RECOMMENDATION

Do you support addition of Bus Turnouts?

YES - 0

NO – 11

Do you support the addition of Bus Shelters?

YES – 5

NO – 5

Abstain – 1

Four of the 15 committee members were not in attendance at the final meeting.